Faisal Abdu’Allah’s “Blu³eprint” sculpture, which stands outside of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) on State Street in Madison, was highlighted in the UK-based journal Printmaking Today.
Abdu’Allah is a professor with the School of Education’s Art Department. He also holds the Chazen Family Distinguished Chair in Art, and is the associate dean of the arts in the School of Education.
In addition to being an internationally acclaimed artist, Abdu’Allah is a trained barber. “Blu³eprint” is a nearly seven-foot sculpture of Abdu’Allah himself, seated in a barber’s chair. Computer-operated robots carved the sculpture out of Indiana limestone at Quarra Stone Company in Madison, and it was hand-finished by Italian stone carver Martin Foot.
“For Abdu’Allah, the barber shop is a place of renewal and solidarity for the Black community — and by putting himself in the chair he points to the roles of both artist and barber as storytellers and community builders,” explains the Printmaking Today feature.
The “u³” in the title of the piece refers to the Zulu word Ubuntu, which means “I am because we are” — a statement of interconnected humanity that underpins Abdu’Allah’s work.
Abdu’Allah says he sees the sculpture as a counter-monument to the 1909 sculpture of Abraham Lincoln that sits atop Bascom Hill on the UW–Madison campus. Students have called for its removal as Lincoln believed in white racial superiority. “My philosophy is that artists have always been the shapers of social consciousness and for me this piece illustrates that,” says Abdu’Allah about his work.
“Blu³eprint” was installed as the initial phase in Abdu’Allah’s solo exhibition, “DARK MATTER,” at MMOCA. The exhibition, which explores personal identity, cultural representation, and self-determination, is on view until Apr. 2.